By Tracy Reilly Kelly, LWVCC Board member
The League of Women Voters of Clark County, joining our branches across the United States, condemns the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent action that effectively guts Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the provision that prevents racial discrimination. The court claims there is no more racial discrimination in the United States, so this legislation is no longer needed. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In rendering Section 2 ineffective, the court has removed the most important tool of the landmark 1965 civil rights law that ensured voters of color had equal opportunity in redistricting and elections.
This ruling has opened a path to significant changes in representation. Already, there are calls for more redistricting, for partisan gain, in a number of states. Officials who make maps no longer need to worry whether they are eliminating Black voters from any representation.
Redistricting should represent the needs of communities, not political parties. This partisan effort — in any party — is not in the interest of the voting public. We reject racial discrimination, and we will fight with great fervor for a multiracial democracy in which all of us have an equal voice.